


Good Morning, Inquisitor

by Leabbott



Series: Abril Trevelyan [1]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fantasy, Fluff, Masturbation, Nudity, Pre-Romance, it's mostly fluff and angst really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-11
Updated: 2015-05-11
Packaged: 2018-03-30 03:49:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3921820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leabbott/pseuds/Leabbott
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Abril Trevelyan returns just before dawn from a month long excursion, and rather than bathing, she decides to use the washroom in the barracks before the first bell rings. You can imagine the outcome.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Good Morning, Inquisitor

Abril practically cried out in joy when they passed through the portcullis of Skyhold, they had been walking so long. What should have been a two week excursion to the Fallow Mire to close a rogue rift had turned into a month long endeavor after their mounts had gotten injured in the muck and they were forced to leave them at a camp to recover, making their way back to Skyhold with only their aching feet to carry them. And now, as the corner of the sky had just barely begun to gray with the rising sun, they were finally home.

  
“Inquisitor!” One of the soldiers manning the portcullis called out to them, hopping down from his post to stand in front of her. “Sister Leliana wanted us to inform her of your arrival immediately, and tell you to meet in the War Room for – ”

“No.” Abril cut him off, more forcefully than she had intended, and she winced. She had forced their party to march through the night to make it back to Skyhold before dawn so they could sleep, she was not about to waste precious hours at the War Table when she had no pressing matters on which to debrief her advisors. No, they could read the report she had already written when they woke up in the morning instead. “No, that won’t be necessary. It’s too early to rouse them, so let them sleep. Tell Leliana we’ll debrief in the afternoon.” When the recruit nervously glanced around rather than moving, Abril decided her famous patience had run out. “That’s an order, soldier.” He immediately ran to stop the messengers from carrying out their previous assignments.

“’Night, Boss!” She heard Bull call out to her as he headed towards the tavern, a sleeping Sera draped across his arms. Solas merely nodded to her and made his way towards the rotunda, and Abril smiled at them, watching them go.

After a moment of glancing around, Abril quietly made her way towards the soldier’s barracks. All she wanted was to strip of her grimy clothes and wash the sweat and blood and muck of the Fallow Mire off of her body, and she couldn’t wait to do so.  
Had she arrived at a regular hour she probably would have had a servant draw her a bath, but as it was even that would take too long, and the thought of sitting in a tub filled with mucky, bloody water as it sloughed off of her exhausted body caused her nose to wrinkle. That was the awful thing about baths. You either had to be fairly clean already to enjoy it for any length of time, or intent on getting in and out as fast as possible to keep the dirty water from undoing all the washing you had done. Abril had something else in mind.

She slipped silently through the back entrance of the barracks, grabbing a spare set of linen breeches and a shirt, as well as a towel, as she went, making a beeline for the washroom. Once the door was firmly closed behind her, she sighed. She had about a half hour before the first bell alerted their soldiers it was time to start training, and she intended on using every last second of it.

Dagna had come up with a solution to the barracks’ mass bathing problem almost as soon as she had arrived at Skyhold. The trick, she had shown the Inquisitor, was a water rune placed in a socket inside of a colander-type jug and suspended over one’s head; this would allow the water to run through the pressurized holes and over one’s body, washing away the grime down a drain and ensuring that even the last recruits into the room would have fresh water with which to clean themselves. Out of curiosity Abril had tried it late one night, and now she was hooked.

With a sigh Abril stripped of her grimy clothing, choosing the jug at the far corner of the furthest section from the door. Ceiling-high walls divided the washroom into four sections, with each section housing multiple waist-high stalls that indicated how many soldiers could be washing at one time, but Abril had never been in the room with any other recruits. She placed her water rune, along with a fire rune to warm it for good measure, into the designated sockets, and gasped in bliss when the scalding water washed over her shoulders and began to wash away the dirt and blood caked onto her skin. It had been so long since she had had any time to herself that she reveled in it.

For a while she merely stood, basking in the feeling of the molten water cascading in rivulets over her skin and lapping away her aches and pains, the pressure of the water massaging her tight shoulders. It was as if she were standing beneath the waterfall of a dreamy hot spring. She swayed back and forth slightly on her feet as she indulged herself in this small treasure before reaching for the soap.

She hummed as she washed herself thoroughly, one of the tavern songs she had heard the bard playing before she had left for the Fallow Mire. It had been stuck in her head since they had left, coloring her day dreams and setting every imagined scene to beautiful background music. Her hands rubbed across her belly as one dipped down to her thigh and the other rose to massage over her shoulder, a soft smile playing across her lips as she imagined herself at one of her family’s great masked balls again, dancing with a handsome suitor with blonde curls and honey brown eyes. In the reverie her hands caressing across her skin were his as he backed her up against a wall in an alcove behind a pillar, hidden from view of the other guests, and she felt her back press to the shower wall as she mimicked her daydreams.

_You’re ravishing tonight, Lady Trevelyan_. She imagined him whispering into her ear, and she arched her neck against the wet stone of the washroom, smiling at the familiar Ferelden accent echoing in her mind.

_One could say the same of you, Ser Rutherford_. She whispered against the sensitive skin of his neck, lips moving beneath the stream of water though no sound came out.

_Minx_. His growl echoed in her head as she envisioned him turning her to press her front to the wall, and her bare nipples brushed against the cold, rough stone as she mirrored her mind’s imaginings, eliciting an audible gasp from her throat. _Two can play at this game._ One hand held her hip firm while the other ghosted down her stomach towards the apex of her thighs, and her left hand fisted against the wet stone while her other fingers slid ever-so-lightly over her folds as a moan bubbled in her –

“Recruit! What are you doing up before the bell?”

A high pitched yelp escaped Abril’s throat as she doubled over on herself in shock and accidently knocked her runes from the jug, the voice from her daydreams now echoing loud and clear throughout the washroom. The water cut off abruptly, leaving her with no modestly but what her hands could offer. Her tan skin immediately flushed crimson from the tips of her ears spreading out to her shoulders and the tops of her breasts, her body hot with embarrassment as she silently prayed to the Maker that she was dreaming.

“Recruit! I asked you a – ” Suddenly the voice cut off as it neared her stall and she heard a choked, strangled sound from the man behind her. The very man she had just been imagining touching her in very explicit ways. Her ears flamed as she pressed her forehead to the wall and squeezed her eyes shut, fighting back an embarrassed whimper.

“I-Inquisitor?” Cullen’s voice came out strangled as he recognized the scars across her shoulder and down her back, and he quickly spun on his heel to face the opposite wall, but not before getting an eyeful of her round buttocks and supple waist. Her shoulders and spine were dusted with freckles, just as he – _This is inappropriate!_ He scolded himself as his whole body flushed crimson, his linen jerkin and leather pants he had worn to the washroom now uncomfortable warm and tight. He couldn’t believe he had walked in on her washing, and she – _Maker’s breath, what was she doing when I came in?_

“I-I wasn’t aware that you, ah, that you had returned. To Skyhold.” He stuttered out, raising his eyes to the ceiling in a silent plea to the Maker to smite him for his idiocy. Why did he speak? Why?

Abril bit her lip, feeling as if she wanted to scream. This was the worst, most embarrassing situation she could possibly have found herself in. Had it been another soldier she could have terrified them into submission, but this was her Advisor, her Commander, who also happened to be the very person she had developed such a debilitating crush on. She seemed to have a knack for embarrassing herself in front of him. For heaven’s sake, she didn’t even know if her feelings for him were reciprocated and he had already caught her _naked._

“I, um, returned not too long ago.” She offered, then silently scolded herself harshly. What was she doing? Making small talk whilst she huddled naked and wet in a corner while Cullen stood not five feet away? She cast a cursory glance in his direction and saw him standing with his back to her, hands gripped tightly behind his back as he stared at the ceiling. She would have chuckled at his awkwardness had she not been in a worse predicament. At least _he_ was _clothed_.

“Ah. I see.” He responded. A long, awkward silence stretched between them.

Abril waited anxiously, thoughts flashing through her mind of all the possibilities that could come out of this. He was so close that all it would take was a step and she could touch him, pulling him to her slick form and pressing her lips to that delicious scar –

She snapped out of it suddenly and managed to choke out into the heavy silence, “Commander, if you would be so kind as to – ”

“ _Yes_. Your towel, I, I’m so sorry I’ll just – ” The words rushed out of his mouth as he grabbed her towel and clean clothes from where they rested on the stall ledge before him and held them out behind his back, staring hard at a particular groove on the wall in front of him as he realized his pants were uncomfortable tight in the crotch area.

Abril turned hesitantly to glance at him, hands clutching at her breasts in an effort to retain her modesty, and caught sight both of his cheeks flushing an endearing shade of pink and her things where he clutched them in his fingers. She carefully took the clothes from his grasp and slipped the jerkin over her head, yanking the pants on even as they clung uncomfortably to her wet thighs. She scooped up her runes and coughed once, glancing away.

Cullen carefully turned, glimpsing her where she stood with her arms crossed over her breasts in the ill-fitting, half-wet garments, and all he could think was that he had never seen her so beautiful. Her mahogany hair had turned nearly black, sticking in sopping curls to her neck and shirt, and the lightest pink flush ran across her nose underneath her freckles. Her scar, arcing like lightning across her cheek and down her neck to disappear into her tunic, glistened in the lamplight, and he felt an overwhelming need to follow the paths it drew on her skin with his tongue –

He caught her eyes then and his blush returned as he glanced cowardly away. “I-I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware that you, ah, used the barracks to wash.” His hand came up to rub at the back of his neck.

Her teeth worried at her lower lip as she watched his face blush with embarrassment. “I don’t normally, I just didn’t want a bath.” She managed to say, watching him carefully as he turned to return her gaze, sucking his lips between his teeth.

There was something in the look they shared that made Abril’s heart flutter, and Cullen moved to take a step closer to her –

The sudden sound of the first bell clanging above the barracks caused both of them to nearly jump out of their skin. Abril’s blush returned with a vengeance and she glanced away, simultaneously caught between wanting to know the words on the tip of his tongue and wanting to bolt out of the washroom before any of his recruits found them.

“Good morning, Commander.” She murmured, settling on the latter as she hurriedly moved past him towards her exit before it was too late. Her hip brushed his thigh as she maneuvered, barefoot, out of the stall, causing her pulse to jump as she escaped into the brisk morning air.

Cullen watched her go, hands fisting and unfisting as his heart pounded with unvoiced emotion. “Good morning, Inquisitor.”


End file.
